Bebe Rexha explains why “Meant to Be” is the best of both worlds

ABC/Kelsey McNealBebe Rexha never thought she’d write a song that would be both a top 10 pop hit and a record-setting #1 on the country chart. But that’s just what “Meant to Be,” her collabo with Florida Georgia Line, has done. Bebe thinks that’s because both artists were true to themselves when they created it.

“I never came from the country world…I respected it, but I’m not a country artist,” Bebe told reporters in Nashville over the weekend, where she performed with FGL. She says it was FGL’s Tyler Hubbard who advised her not to pretend that she was a country artist.

Bebe explains, “[He] told me…’Just be who you are. Don’t try to put on a country accent just ‘cause you’re on a song with us. Just do what you do best,’” And that’s what happened. They did what they did best, and I did what I did best. And that’s why I think…we’re simultaneously happen[ing] in both worlds.”

The title of Bebe’s debut album, which includes “Meant to Be,” is Expectations, and it’s meant to reflect the unexpected things that have happened to her, like topping the country charts, or mentoring contestants on American Idol years after being rejected by the show.

“I met Simon Cowell recently and I was like, ‘You guys didn’t let me through!’” Bebe laughs. “And he’s like, ‘Oh, we fired that person.’ And I was like, ‘OK… alright…me and my mom stood in line for 10 hours and I didn’t even make it past the first round!'”

She adds, “I guess it was a cool revenge moment…I told [the contestants] that story and they were like, ‘Oh OK! So there’s a chance. This is not the be all, end all!’ I was like, ‘No, it’s not!’”